mspr1nt

August 8, 2013

6:26 pm

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Hashtag freelance problems

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My life is sad. I spent my off day Googling “freelance problems” to make myself feel less alone about freelance problems. I found a great tumblr. It’s called “Young journalist problems” – some of them are really funny. You can view the whole thing here – I’ve picked some of my favourites below.

Filing

Filing – no matter for who or at what time – is always a massive relief. It’s like having a massive secret and getting rid of it. Although, this picture misses one thing: you only feel nothing once the editor replies and says: thanks, this is fine.

Puns

I love puns. I’m bad at them, but I love working them into copy or headlines. Most of the time writers don’t decide on their own headlines, the subs are much better at punning. Sometimes, though, you get away with it. Then you feel like this

Needing to be somewhere early

Press conference are usually midday. Once in a while, somebody decides to make them at around 10:30, meaning you need to get up by 9:00. Cross-timezone covering of games is also pretty sucky.

Actually getting work

Being a relatively unknown journo means going to have to find work. Finding work means annoying people until they reply to you. Most of time, though, you get ignored.

And when you get rejected (almost every day)…

And when you get commissioned, especially by a publication you actually quite like.

Getting paid

Getting paid is quite nice. Those who work real jobs and full-time jobs know exactly when they’re getting paid. Freelancers, not so much. First there are forms. Then are are more forms. Then there are forms which need to be redone. Then the forms got lost. Then you’ve finally sent the forms. Then you wait. Some clients pay really quickly. Others, not so much. It can take a week, it can take three weeks or it can take a month. When you eventually get paid…